Luigi's visit to Ravnica
by fahrain
Summary: This story is about Luigi of the Mario Brothers going to Ravnica of Magic the Gatherings setting for a contrived reason based off a drawing I did of Luigi as a Simic initiate. I still need to connect the chapters together somehow.
1. Luigi goes to Ravnica

Luigi was far behind his older brother as they ran after Bowser's flying airship. If they could only get their hands on a magic feather, they could fly onto it, but no time; they had to catch up to grab a hold of its anchor before it took off too high in the sky. Mario was always a faster runner than Luigi, and he fell behind. Though Luigi's acrobatic skills were such that Mario could only dream of, it would be of no use until Luigi first made it to the anchor. Mario made it to the anchor, leapt on the chain rope, and climbed aboard just in time for the airship to gain enough speed to take off into the air. Luigi was left behind. This did not happen often, but it wasn't the first time that Luigi fell short. Mario would have to save the day on his own again.

It was always awkward for Luigi concerning this. Mario saved the day often, that is, he often had to thwart Bowser's scheme single-handedly, but not for want of any help. Rather, something always kept Luigi behind. Mario never brought it up, never accused Luigi of slacking, nor changed his attitude toward his beloved younger brother at all, as a matter of fact. Luigi helped out whenever possible and "whenever it counted"; he had saved Mario and Mario had saved him, this is the nature of long term heroes, protectors of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Luigi stood on the silent plain on the outskirts of the Mushroom Kingdom border, unmoving, staring at the dot flying through the air away from them, determined to weave something to say, something different this time for when Mario arrived. Luigi was not going to let this situation slip quietly into history like he always did. Mario thought something, he knew it, and Luigi thought Mario thought he could not say anything for fear of hurting Luigi's feelings. He was stronger than he thought Mario thought he was. He hoped he could make Mario know how much more strong he was without seeming desperate, apologetic, or even that he appeared to care too much what his brother though of him, so many things, all barriers preventing him from speaking candidly with his own kin. _But it's probably the same way with all family_.

Luigi looked over at a nearby pipe and realized he could at least be there when the flying dreadnought docked at Bowser's keep. He knew the way, and he jumped into the pipe. Bowser's minions were given permission to drive one of his airships, so their caper must have been something important. During the middle of last night, they docked in the forest behind Peach's castle and snuck into the storage facility. With skillful magic given to them by Bowser's magikoopas, they were able to drowse the short mushroom-headed guards and steal magical relics from Peach's collection. However, their greed would become their downfall. Apparently after they made their way back to the airship with their assigned relic, they went back for more riches for themselves, and there they were caught. Royal mages employed by the castle gave chase, and there the chase started when Mario and Luigi were contacted during the magical fray. Bowser must really have wanted whatever it was he assigned his koopas to steal because he gave them some impressive contraband magics, enough to fend off royal mages.

Luigi was gliding from one pipe to the next, intimately familiar with the system of pipes like a map in his head. Occasionally, some of the more mischievous pipes altered their direction, but even these were known to Mario and Luigi. However, while he was sliding on his rear from a pipe downward, he hit solid. His feet planted onto something metal, and indeed, this pipe was a dead end­ -either that or another pipe crossed right through this one. The downward slide was not too steep, and after gaining momentary bearing form the surprise and the slight shock to his feet, Luigi began climbing back up the pipe to enter the pipe hallway above him. He was confused; this pipe was supposed to lead toward Bowser's keep, or at least in its general direction. Just then Luigi felt a vibration of the metal pipe around him, and afterward, a monstrous crash that rattled his head and sent him flying through the pipe and out into the convoluted twisted system of pipes around him. Though the pipe system was not so dense everywhere, he was in a particular "hub" of twisted pipes that connected most other pipes that led all around the kingdom; Luigi never saw it from the ouside before. Under the ground he could see the earth was torn away and the pipes exposed; pieces of wood and metal were flying all over. Fire, debris and sand seared Luigi as he tumbled form the blast. The airship that Mario boarded had crashed right into the hub. The engine exploded, and the treasures were scattered if not destroyed within its vast blast radius. Luigi hit solid metal, a pile of pipe and cannon material from the ship was his bed that night.

Luigi woke up late in the afternoon, half-buried in wood, metal, and earth. Heaving a pile of junk off him, he stood to see the extent of the damage and assess exactly what happened. He saw the airship, nose first in the ground, splintered, and the bow sticking diagonally out of the ground. The pipes below him were destroyed, likely their ability to transport people quickly disrupted, ad there were glowing rocks, too. Rocks glowed white light as if enchanted, and the appearance of glitter was scattered everywhere. Luigi noticed the glittery material was more prevalent from the inside of one particular pipe and investigated; maybe a magical relic was broken.

His suspicions were right. Inside the pipe was a broken window frame, or at least what looked like one. It was embedded to the inside of the pipe and to what looked like a celestial flowing cloth. Luigi's first thought was that this was a painting, and the canvas was ripped, but to his closer inspection, he realized this cloth was the source of the glitter. The cloth appeared to be made of no other material he could think of, and as he inspected the delicate edges, he could see they were slowly deteriorating with the wind, fraying off into glittery bits that the wind carried away. He grabbed the cloth and could not feel it. He pinched each side of the cloth to grab it, but only felt his own fingers touch. This was definitely magic cloth, one of the stolen relics perhaps. Given the koopa's preparation and afittments, a very important one.

Luigi let go, and, like ghost cloth, the material floated back, hardly affected by gravity. Luigi tried to see if this painting displayed any images, and when he shifted around to see what fragment he could catch, he saw his red overall clad brother crouching for cover on a burning airship.

Luigi was horrified. Was this a depiction of the past? A magic mirror? He instinctively reached out his hand and touched the painting, and his hand went through. Although he was wearing a glove, he felt something different on the other side of this magic window, and his brother was on the other side, no doubt. Luigi remembered the deterioration of the cloth, and knew that if he did nothing, this cloth could totally deteriorate, permanently destroying his window to Mario, and perhaps even the other world. Luigi wanted to take off running to the Mushroom Kingdom to warn the others of the situation and get a proper assessment. The world on the other side might be dangerous or even worse, it might be a trap to lure him. Luigi didn't have time to think. He dove in.

It was an awkward squeeze, not dramatic. Luigi leapt off his feet and plunged in. He thought he would be fed through, but it was as if he just threw himself on the ground. Where he landed, however, was a whole new world. Luigi was sitting on his bottom on the street of a large, bustling city. He tried to look for his point of entry; this place was chaotic, and he wanted to be sure he knew how to get back home. He saw nothing. He looked on the ground where he landed and saw what looked like a piece of paper on the ground; the other side displayed the twisted pipes and wreckage of Bowser's airship, the glittery edges fading quickly away. The window to his own world was about the as big around as his waist now, and he knew he would not have enough time to rescue his brother and return. He could jump back and never see his brother again, or he could say goodbye to the Mushroom Kingdom and the life he knew so well. He thought about Peach, Daisy, Bowser, Mario and then he stood there for several minutes, staring at the magic window shrink into nothing.

After his initial shock, the noise of his surroundings died down, or at least he grew accustomed to the noise. People were chattering, there was the sound of children yelling and playing off in the distance. Luigi spotted a shop, and instinctively thought he was in a bazaar in the desert, but this world was too big for an oasis. Luigi's first steps out of the dirty alley he landed in were tenative; he was bumped by a man in a hurry. Luigi stumbled aside as the caped man glided past him wihout a word. Luigi saw him clutching something in his hand, it was glowing, or perhaps his hands were glowing holding an item as if lit up by magic. In light of what he has seen these past couple days, magic was on his mind. _Is this a world of magic?_. There was a crowd of people talking and arguing; apparently he was in a market of a country larger even than the Mushroom Kingdom. Peach's opulent castle ended abruptly where the rest of the kingdom sprawled out flatly with normal housing, but this one extended into the sky. There was no castle in sight, just miles and miles of buildings, all of comparable size, except for an occasional spire he could see just barely beyond his horizon of view. He looked at the crowd more closely and walked toward the thick of the people gathered around a few stands. He saw what looked like odd produce and other strange relics laid out on tables, but the people horrified Luigi the most. They were so tall and thin, and some of them were monstrous looking. Luigi decided he might be in the future of the Mushroom Kingdom where overdevelopment and mixing among mushrooms, humans, and koopas resulted into many hybrids, but this didn't explain some of these people he saw. Some were gigantic monsters even larger than Bowser, and others had blue skin; some were small imps that looked like twisted humans, and the more he saw the stranger things he encountered, he wanted to leave, go to a clearing of forest, to a pipe, something familiar. Luigi ran down the street fast as he could, searching for the end of this loud, tall city. He bumped into people, shoved them out of the way--he didn't care--and finally rammed into a tall human clad in armor. Luigi shoved away, but the human grabbed him by the back of the overalls and brought Luigi to face him. The man spoke in a foreign language, and Luigi tried to eek out, "I don't know what you are saying," when he calmed a little.

The man appeared annoyed, and he raised his voice and tone, speaking another arcane phrase Luigi could not answer. His fear rising again, the thought glanced his mind not to speak again because it appeared that might annoy the soldier further, but in spite of this Luigi sputtered more rambling phrases. "Tell me where I am," was the only sentence that resulted from a clear thought in Luigi's sputterings.

The man's brow furrowed into a scowl. Luigi could hear the clanking of other soldiers approaching, They were dressed like this guy, clad in silvery metal with a flowing blue cape. The man began talking slowly to Luigi, who did not respond. Instead, he felt the grip on his collar loosen and took the opportunity to break free; he stumbled and pushed the solider in an attempt to run far away. The man's gripp then immediately tightened again, and Luigi instinctively, and full of fear, attampted to blast a fireball. He was in a horribly awkward position, and his hand only glowed a hot green as his hand flailed toward the guard's face; it was abruptly defended. The man grabbed the offending arm, and his arm was held behind his back before his fingers cooled. The man suddenly released Luigi as the three men arrived, and with a moment of hesitation, he tried to take off running. Luigi tripped, his legs just failed from underneath him, and the soldiers, numbering three, were speaking in unison. Their tone was monotonous and sustained, as if they enjoyed every world they spoke, but also also that they were bored. Luigi could not get up; he looked back and saw the soldiers pointing their spears at him, the tips glowing blue, and Luigi couldn't move. He felt like a giant invisible hand was holding him down and felt a slight undertone of shame, as if this hand was his father's, and he was being a bad boy. He lay there, trying to break free, waiting for the spears to piece his belly and kill him, but eventually, when the men were done, Luigi--limp and frozen, like a posable puppet--was easily picked up by one of the soldiers with the blue skin he'd seen on other people before, and Luigi's own legs walked willingly with him.

Luigi spent the rest of the day in a cell reflecting on his crime. Luigi did not have to get himself arrested to know that the armored man was a law enforcer or some sort, and his mistaken flailing attempt to free himself constituted assult. The phrase, "assaulting a law enforcement officer" made Luigi's stomach tingle to the brink of nausea. The cell was quite clean, he shared his cell with one of the small imps he saw in the market--or at least one that looked like him (he couldn't tell). The imp was a couple inches shorter than Luigi himself, and had green skin with a pointed nose and ears. His eyes were large and arms and legs bony. He was clad in tattered red and brown clothing. Luigi sat on his spotless metal bench and stared at the wall; the "goblin" as Luigi would refer to him, just stared at him. The goblin finally broke their silence when Luigi glanced at him for perhaps the eighth time to see if he was still being stared at. The goblin spoke in the same nonsensical language the soldiers spoke and Luigi decided not to attempt to reply. He was beginning to suspect that his language or perhaps voice was inherently offensive to these beings. After a few moments of painstaking silence, it occurred to him that silence might be just as offensive, and this creature was different from the humans and the blue-skinned man, which Luigi began to refer to as an "alien". Luigi said, "I don't speak your language…" He was about to continue, but the nonplussed look on the goblin's face had a suggestion that Luigi was indeed in deep trouble if he could not even speak the language of this world.


	2. run into the Azorius

The time of day for Luigi was skewed, while it felt like afternoon when he arrived here, the night seemed to fall quickly. Only one guard passed that whole night. Another passed to slide two blankets through the bars of the cell at the full fall of night. Luigi took one but the goblin ignored his, having fallen asleep on is bench hours ago. Luigi didn't know how he managed to fall asleep, but after lying on his back staring at the ceiling, he dreamt of a morbid party where he danced with Peach and Daisy, and Mario's job was to keep the table stocked with cake, lemons and eggs. The morning's light from the window woke Luigi, whose neck was now stiff. The goblin was already awake, staring at the wall, but now at Luigi since he was awake. Luigi's fear waited for him all night and was right there at his bed when he awoke, and his stomach knotted again. Luigi got up to stretch his legs. The goblin flinched, Luigi ignored it. He looked out the window of the building. Walking up the seemingly endless flights of stairs to his cell he had known he was up very high, but he hadn't imagined he had come this high. There were buildings as far as he could see, and with the sun cascading off them, it almost seemed as if there was no ground. At certain points, the chasms between the buildings seemed to extend into the deep abyss, and Luigi felt like this whole civilization was on the tops of buildings, as if there was no longer any room on the solid earth. After a few minutes of scanning the horizon, a guard opened the cell door and called out. Luigi looked and assumed the guard had called for him. He walked to the guard, and, though expecting to be grabbed by the collar or forced into walking along again, was simply guided out of the cell by a hand on his back. The gate was shut, and Luigi followed the man as he walked into and down the hallway.

They entered a room where the man handed Luigi a white robe and left him alone. From the porthole of the door, Luigi saw the guard was standing in front of it, waiting for him. Luigi took another look at the white robe, and reluctantly he changed. He knew there was no other choice, but he wondered about his gloves; they were only way he would be able to protect himself in ultimate danger. Luigi no longer needed a fire flower to shoot fireballs from his hands, but without his gloves, the flames would burn his own hands. He kept them on and hoped that no one would notice.

The robe was bulky and made of heavy, yet airy cloth. It was white with yellow trim, fitting like a poncho toward the top but a robe toward the bottom. There was also a tunic included inside that fit nearly perfectly around Luigi's torso. He opened the door and exited, but as soon as he got one step out of the room, he heard a hollow ringing sound. Abruptly, the guard took a look at Luigi in his robe and pointed to his hands. Indeed he must remove his gloves. With a momentary hesitation, and wondering if he would ever see his clothes again, he slipped them off, and tossed them onto his piled overalls on the ground. He was guided to a room, it was adorned like a courtroom, but smaller, perhaps a judge's chamber or hearing room and Luigi was bid sit down. After a couple minutes wait, a robed man holding a rod entered. This robed man was different than the robe Luigi was wearing, this robe was solid white, trailed behind him and the man wore an odd rectangular prism hat on his head. As soon as the judge entered, the guard pulled Luigi up, and began speaking, he said many things to the judge before he even sat down, and when the judge seated, Luigi knew to seat himself too. The solider still said more things Luigi did not get, and the judge listened intently. When he was finished, the judge looked at Luigi and then back at the soldier. He spoke a quick phrase, and raised his staff. He waved the end of it across Luigi's plane of vision, and he saw a smoky cloud extend from the end, as if drawing with his staff. The cloud was opaque, white and remained hovering in the air in front of Luigi like a banner. As the judge spoke once again, words scrolled across the cloud, words that Luigi could read.

"What is your name?" the cloud read.

"Ahm-ah Luigi," he said, hoping the judge would finally be able to understand him. With a brief nod, the judge spoke again.

"Are you guildless?" the cloud read. Luigi did not know what he meant.

"I-ah don't understand," Luigi said. The judge looked at the cloud between him and Luigi and he understood, this cloud was a translator, the words they spoke would be written for each other; he was saved.

"You don't belong to a guild then?" the judge said with the help of the cloud.

Luigi replied, "Ah…No. No guild that ahm aware of".

"What do you mean?" the judge responded. Luigi knew this was the opportunity to get some answers.

"I don't think-ah ahm-ah from around here. Ahm from the Mushroom Kingdom," Luigi said. He wanted to say more, he wanted to tell them the whole horrible story so they could fix everything and send him and his brother back home.

"Are you Golgari?" the judge interrupted, with a raised brow.

"Ah don't know what that is. I think ahm from a different world, I entered here through a magic window ah-think", Luigi said. There was an odd look from the judge, and then to the soldier.

"Do you understand the reason for your arrest?" the judge finally asked back.

"No-ah, ah-was afraid. I got here, and ah-didn't know what anything was". There was a moment of silence, the judge just stared at him. "What's-ah my charge?"

"I understand your concern, your charges is resisting questioning from an Azorius Hussar, resisting arrest from an Azorius Hussar, and attacking an Azorius Hussar" the Judge answered. Luigi still didn't understand the significance of this.

"Can you help- me get back to mah home" Luigi asked.

"Unfortunately, that is not my job. This is only your arraignment," the judge said. "You will be detained here until your trial, and there you can discuss the circumstances you claim led you to attack the Hussar": _what kind of people are these guys?_ Luigi thought. The judge added, "We assume you are speaking the truth since you….appear…..different, but know that the circumstances of your arrival are irrelevant to the nature of your charges and must abide by our laws and procedures set in the guildpact." The judge finished this sentence like he was reading it off a paper and he couldn't wait to be done, then he abruptly got up and walked toward the door, and paused to say, "I don't believe it's a mere coincidence that you, and outer-worlder, are equally under the power of the guildpact", and he walked out.

Luigi was led by the guard to a different part of the building, he was not being headed for his cell. He was led into a bright room, with what appeared to be turquoise glassy eggs everywhere, inside were the frozen bodies of people of all shapes and colors. Monstrous people, and normal looking people, old and young. Suspended in turquoise light, or turquoise goo, a range of bored complacent expressions, and pained ones. Luigi was horrified. _Is this my execution? Are they statues?_ Many thoughts crossed his mind, and he stopped at the sight of the room when he absorbed the fact they were indeed living beings suspended and frozen in the bubbles. One of them, a woman, had a wild expression in her eyes, she was leaning forward and appeared to be trapped in the eternal note of a song, or a primal scream. Luigi was still standing still absorbing the contents of the room, the guard grabbed Luigi's arms such that it hurt, and he saw a guard at the door ready to pounce into action if he resisted, he allowed the guard to drag his stumbling body to a metal hollow in the ground. Seemingly from nowhere, a white robed man, differently from the judge began speaking to himself, and held in his hand a glowing blob of teal-colored goo, smooth and shiny. Luigi was pulled into the hollow and stood there. The judge was still speaking, staring at the ball of goo, and then with a glance to Luigi, head motionless, he tossed the goo underhanded and it attached itself to Luigi's stomach. There it undulated, twitched, and Luigi swatted at it, scared for his life that the goo ball will consume him. Indeed it grew larger, and from there, extended pseudopods outward and seemed to stop as if an invisible barrier kept the outside smooth, the shape of an egg. The ball formed tendrils and sinews of goo all around him, and wrapped him completely in a wall. Luigi had barely enough time for the concept of air to cross his mind when the matter grew and squeezed him from all sides. He never got the sensation of suffocation, just went to sleep; dreamless.

Luigi's sub-consciousness was still aware of his location, but his senses were gone, he felt no want of food, movement, answers, he existed, and Luigi himself was not in charge of the thoughts in his head, as if his mentality was separated from his body, He had barely enough time to form a thought; _Is this like heaven without the happiness?_ Luigi awoke, surrounded, suspended in teal goo, and his memories came back to him. Like a giant hand wrapped around him it loosened, and the goo that suspended Luigi in the air and rendered him a happy vegetable for an unknown time fell loose like a melting flan. The material drained below his feet and Luigi fell to his knees, dry, not a wrinkle in his white robe. Two different looking guards stood over him, and waited patiently for him to get up, get his muscular bearings, and signify he was ready to go with a look up at their eyes. As Luigi walked and scanned the other prisoners of the turquoise goo, he realized the wild woman clad in green and brown was gone, her cell occupied by another being. When he got to the door he wondered how long he was suspended on the brink of dream, and where the goblin he shared a cell with was. At this point, he'd contrive a friend out of an enemy for want of someone to talk to without the need of magic clouds.


	3. Luigi's time with the Azorius

"How long was I here?" Luigi managed to say when to got to the door.

It barely occured to him that he had no concept of time while in his stasis, and his throat grew felt swollen and hot as his anxiety increased. Luigi got no answer to his question. Luigi looked up at the man waiting at the door. Another armored soldier, in the same silver plates and blue cape. These men were all different however, Luigi never saw the same soldier twice it seemed. He was led through twisting corridors and when Luigi's wobbly strides barely began to correct itself, he was led into a door, into another courtroom. A white-robed man was already waiting for him however, and all eyes turned to Luigi when he stepped in. He felt like a fool in his white robe, he knew it was a telling fashion that signified him as a captive of this twisted judiciary.

The courtroom was arranged similarly to those he has seen, judge's bench at the front, and tables to seat the prosecutors and defendant. But this room also was narrow, long, and the sides of the room had box seats, two on each side. The roof was glass, with metallic beams cross crossing the top, giving it the feel of a conservatory. Cloaked men stood in them, as far as Luigi could see, they didn't move, but their cloth slowly swayed and undulated by an unseen breeze. The seats were filled with men and women, some bored looking, others hovered over scrolls, writing furiously, as if taking down every detail of this procession or Luigi himself. He finally had a seat in his chair at the defendant's table, and his sore muscles finally had a rest. The judge stated something after a long pause and the soliders stood in their place, forming always, perfect symmetry in the room. He uttered a quick imcomprehensible phrase, and Luigi began to really think he should start learning their language. The judge looked at Luigi, they locked eyes, and before he suspected he was supposed to say something, the judge waved a rod at him, and with a hiss, a stream of cloudy steam ejected from the shiny orbular tip of rod. The cloud flew at Luigi and formed a ring around his head, hovering. This was the same type of cloud used in his arraignment, so he knew this was to enable everyone in the room to hear him and vice versa.

A man was waiting for Luigi when he got to his table, this man was dressed well, in a black robe, he wore what appeared to be a shiny gold shoulderpiece that fit him like a mantle. The man looked at Luigi with the crack of a smile and nodded. A man, with a rectangular hat approached the front of the courtroom and stood in front of the judge's bench. The elderly man in a white robe unfulred a long scroll, the, bottom was not even completely unrolled, he just let the botom drop, with a dull clank and began reading from the top.

"The proceedures of the courtroom are as follows: As per amendment one to the constitution of courtoom protocol, full integrity of semantic arguements on the part of the judges shall be protected from defendants and prosecutors"...

Luigi didn't understand, the man was reading rules about how to act in the courtroom, their amendments, and after a painstaking hour. The man, who identified himself as a "Minister of Impediments" somewhere during his rambling of the longest run-on sentance Luigi ever heard in his life. _Very appropriate title; very very appropriate_. Luigi thought during this verbal procession. He wandered off in thought, looked upward to the cloaked men, still motionless, he prepared his words for when he would have to defend himself, and thought of Mario. He never gave up hope of finding him, and he held on to his dreams of the Mushroom Kingdom, which he suspected he would never see again. Luigi's long faded attention was brought back by a change of tone in the man's voice, he cleared his thoat, paused, and began reading Luigi's charges. Luigi was horrified, there were charges in there that he wasn't told before. There must have been ten or fifteen extra ones. Among them were failing to register as a "pyromancer" with a guild.

The next hours were filled with back and forth talking between the man next to Luigi, which he knew now as his defending lawmage, and other white robed men in the room. The judge scanned the room, never moving abruptly, even when a new person spoke on the other side of the room. The man used references of laws to attempt to defend Luigi, but he had no idea how well he was doing, he didn't understand any of it, even with a magical translator cloud. The best he could gather was that his defending lawmage's most important platform was that Luigi was unaware of the laws be broke, and that he did manage to establish he was indeed an outerworlder. The prosecutors apperaed to use the arguement that Luigi being still bound by lawmagic and the guildpact made him no different from others who broke laws they didn't know they broke. Luigi knew this wasn't good. Even worse, he didn't get to say anything at all. The court took a recess when the sun began to dip low in the sky, casting an orange hue on the room. The translator cloud apparently was only cast because Luigi had a legal right to understand his sentencing.

Luigi got a hold of the daily schedule. His trial would last for weeks, months. He would get up in the late morning, be provided with a meal, go to trial, listen to debate, break for recess, get another meal, wait around in his cell for a couple hours and resume until the fall of evening, and back to his cell. Some days, he gave up hope of ever getting to defend himself, and on life itself, other days, he listened intently to every word spoken in an attempt to grasp their logic and perhaps become knowledgable with thieir material. As if they knew of this, their language became more and more arcane as Luigi focused on them. Luigi's own sanity was corroded by the irony of the magic translator cloud; it allowed Luigi to understand the words they said, but not understand what they said any more than if they were speaking their native palatal slavic-sounding language.

My time with the Azorius Senate was hell. I was allowed paper and pen to write anything down, provided that I stored it in a special container and no one saw it's contents until a year after my trial was over. I had no idea why these rules were made up, but this whole society, this guild was built upon a philosophy of status quo, and stagnation. The men here awknowledged in their minds no doubt the lack of efficiency here, but perhaps it's efficient for their cause, no one with sanity would stand for a guild who dedicates so much energy to getting nothing done. Worst of all, I was caught in the middle". I have no problem with showing these to no one, while to prevent me from sending secret messages during an ongoing trial, these are more to maintain my own sanity.

This world is called Ravnica, I've heard it many times, apparently it's the name of the whole world, the name of the city I cannot see the end of when I look out into the horizon through a window. I was in a stasis cell for four months, during that time, I did not age, that was the mass of teal colored goo, it's a magic preservative, and I, like all criminals are kept here until they could find me a lawmage, that is, a lawyer. This poor denizens of this world are gripped tightly under the laws of this guild, and there are nine guilds, yet they do a fairly good job avoiding entanglements with this one, the Azorius Senate. Of all the people for me to run into in a fit of panic. The only other guild I've had contact with was the Orzhov Syndicate, this is because that is where my defending lawmage is from, and I don't have much to go on based on his defense of me, he hardly looks at me during the courtoom proceedings. What little that does manage to get done appear to be the result of my defending lawmages confounding of the attempts of the Ministers of Impediments to "shelf" a motion, or place something in the "Arbiter's queue". The man is tall, and robed in black, this pretty much summates his dark persona, silent, mysterious, and he, like me, appears to have little patience for these Azorius men. I have been here in prison for nearly a year. I have been counting the days in attempt to keep track of time, but I lost count somewhere in the early two hundreds.

The day came that Luigi was to be called to the witness stand. He did not see it coming, he was given no fore warning. He laid on a a stiff metal bench in a cell after his midday meal, and the Azorius guard let him out of his cell sooner than ever before. Confused, Luigi was taken to the courtroom where there were significantly less people in the room. Among those missing, was his defending lawmage, just the guards, judge and "balcony spirits" were there. When the translator cloud was conjured, Luigi was told that he will now testify. He rose from his bench, and briefly thought to ask why his lawmage wasn't there. He was worried and felt very uncomfortable with this procession. In a guild that seemed to take sadistic pleasure in draining one's time away for minor infractions, they seemed awfully eager to get Luigi to testify, as it appeared, before anyone returned from their meal break.

"where is my lawmage?" Luigi managed to ask in a fit of courage. Merely asking a question was a valiant leap of courage for him. He knew that this place wasn't the type he could triumphantly escape by diving out the glass window and slide along a drainage pipe to the ground; with a word, the men can bind him to the ground...forever.

"As per section 18: Temporal Courtroom Protocol of the Codex Infinatum, the reconvention of the court, though undefined shall occur in time equal to the..."

The man trailed off, realizing that his point was achieved. Luigi, halfway though that phrase nodded his head furiously to dismiss the minister's phrase. Luigi began to understand what was going on here, the court reconvenes when they say so, and there is a reason they want Luigi to testify without his lawmage present. All the work, objections, and scroll pushing doubtlessly would be thrown down the drain if Luigi testified alone with no council or defense. A magical ring of magic was cast on a raised dais next to the judge's bench. Luigi knew from a brief talk with his lawmage that witnesses would stand on a witness stand with a spell on it that prevented them from lying.

"You statements on the witness stand will be guided by event magic to ensure the legal relevance, and objectivity" The Minister of Impediments blurted as if a gun was pointed to his head.

Luigi was read the beginnings of the witness protocol at an alarming pace. The man was rushing his due process for a change, they wanted Luigi on the stand, in the magic ring fast. The ring might be designed to prevent him from lying, but it surely could not help him, for all he knew the ring was an incriminating spell that would prevent Luigi from doing anything by begging for a life sentence. He was very uneasy, he wanted to run, leave, but the guards were everywhere, he would have to go on the witness stand, _Maybe I can beat them at their own game, maybe I can stall them, but for an hour?_ Luigi's mind was racing, he didn't know what to do.

The heavy door flung open with a dull boom, and Luigi, and his escort soldier turned as all eyes darted to the entrance. Luigi's spinning head had to focus on the figures for a moment, and in his daze knew he was saved when he saw the black of his defending lawmage. As he absorbed what else he saw, his whole life, everything he knew was turned upside down, he saw someone else next to the lawmage he never thought that he would see; Princess Peach, dressed in her trademark victorian style bustle dress, but in jet black, hair let down, a black tiara and onyx brooch, silk black gloves, and a the stern look on her face of the Orzhov.


	4. Luigi's Simic notes

My time in the Simic Combine went by very fast. While I felt during experiments that time went by slowly and that some of the tests with the cytoplasts would never end, at the end of each day, I hardly had the feeling of doing anything constructive other than eating meals. Each morning, I would reflect on my time in Ravnica with surprise as how fast the weeks passed. The months were measured differently here, and even though the language barrier was mostly broken with me and these inhabitants, it was still difficult to get ahold of their measurements of time. The fact is, I did not learn how to speak their language, nor did they learn how to speak mine, but magic was used to cull the problem, and thus no learning was required. To me it seems that a newly acquired skill in Ravnica is a feat in itself; so many laws enforced, skills and even household chores were performed with magic, it's readily available to everyone and is as common as remedies at the drug store, as readily available as the paper it's written on.

Cytoplasts in small amounts were attached to me at first. Great care was taken not to have this material touch other beings because the cytoplasts absorb genetic information and share it with their host. Magical enchantments and aura magic are all used to ensure the integrity of the cytoplasts. They were removed from me at the end of the experiments and each day, they would have more cytoplasts to try on me. They would be the same blobs I wore the previous day with more mass added, or cytoplasts that were previously attached to pyromancers.

They also offered an explanation to the fact my fire is green in color. I always thought it was a part of me, indeed, this was verified by their hypothesis; where I come from, our color is important to us, it's part of who we are. I was clothed in green since I was born; green is little less than who I am. They mentioned my dark power, my years of mental solitude, even in the plain sight and company of my friends. My dark secret concerning my brother, my jealousy of Mario--the dark power was unintentional, but my ignorance of it was as if I welcomed it into my heart. Mario was good, genuinely good, and he was humble and noble and kind. I was too, but it came naturally to him. He meant no harm, but in his complete naïve benevolence it was just as bad for me as if he taunted and ridiculed me for being second fiddle. I would have preferred this, even; it would have made it so much less shameful when I would resent him.

They took especial interest in my ability to generate fireballs with my hands. Though I had the innate ability to form green fireballs, they were not without their danger, hence my necessity to wear gloves. The ability came from the fire flowers from the Mushroom Kingdom, and indeed using one now will augment this firepower. The Simic scientists told me a similar effect does indeed occur on Ravnica. Criminals who use contraband magic get it in their system, and patriarchs of the Orzhov Syndicate drink a magic liquid infused with the affinity and life power of doomed prisoners to achieve longevity by the same means I managed to impress pyromancy into my hands.

"My dark power." This was their name for it, an auspicious name like a horror novel I was doomed to read. When addressed, the scientists descended on me without scruples or judgment; it was refreshing yet cold. There was no punishment for my jealousy, no scorn, just intrigue. They used little magic windows and liquids and talked of "mana" and "auras". The cytoplasts only served to focus the power I had control over. In order to unlock this dark power, they assigned me a Simic psychiatrist to discuss the nature of my brotherhood with Mario. The psychiatrist was a female vedalken, a blue-skinned humanoid, thin and tall, and spoke like my mental breakthrough was on a schedule. We talked about my childhood and our raising for a few days with no foreseeable improvements, much less indicated by her stony face. On the third day in a spurt of impulsiveness I would never have foreseen in her, she took me on a tour of the undercity. We descended into the ground, and I saw the previous incarnations of Ravnica, now dilapidated, dark, wet and reminiscent of death itself. She told me to become familiar with it, release my feelings into it and invite the darkness to enter, filter itself through me, and them empty out, taking my mental strife with it, complete mental control, no apologies, no shame. I felt at home in the undercity, I was hidden from the eyes of the helpless, the cries of damsels in distress. The vedalken and I could have disappeared into the shadows and never again be found. She then said she was done with me.

The cytoplasts with which I eventually left the Simic Combine were the final stage of their experimentation on me. They were careful with me because they are not used to test subjects with fire capabilities. I discovered that their fascination with me supersceded their "ethical" obligation to send me to the Izzet League, who specialize in unusual magics. They told me they had to apply cytoplasts in subtle amounts because apparently a singular large dose of cytoplasts augmenting my fireball ability would have filtered so much red mana though my body as to turn me into a fiery mindless hedonic and possibly kill me. _Thanks for that._ The cytoplasts protected my bare hands completely from the heat of my fire, and moreover, they augmented my fire abilities such that with the power of my own initiative, I can now sculpt blazing ropes, pillars, and waves of fire. They gave me some scrolls to record anything unusual concerning my cytoplasts, and a couple of spells were included there too for my safe return to the Mushroom Kingdom. My acrobatics were improved as well. I was told upon my leaving that they will keep a position open for me if I wanted to return, and that they would be interested to see how my cytoplasts worked out long term. A curious note as well; the vedalken psychiatrist told me to reflect on my time in the undercity if I should need help in battle or danger, if I should need something to throw a particularly difficult adversary or situation a curveball; I was sure to heed this advice.

There are no labels in the Mushroom Kingdom. If we are not great in our character, we are forgotten, that was not the type of setting for me to go to, not with a brother like mine. In this world, there is mana, five different types. In a world where the giant building structures gape to swollow you into obscurity, people can at least define themself by their mana type, it's a philosophy, none worse than other. I needed this all along, I am defined now by both the traits of my past, and the green and blue mana that are attracted to it. My hidden capacity for black mana usage is contained in a part of me that is stifled in the Mushroom Kingdom, it's a last resort, and it's a part of me now.


End file.
